linux.conf.au Presentations

How a CPU is born

Seminar

People expect their CPU to be fast, robust and always give the correct answers. In the software world we are used to quick turnaround times where bugs can be fixed in minutes. The same cannot be said for hardware where changes take a long time and cost large amounts of money.

This talk will cover some of the steps taken to bring-up the IBM POWER5 microprocessor and in particular how Linux was used to accelerate this process.

Anton Blanchard

Anton Blanchard is one of the Linux PowerPC64 maintainers and works in Canberra for the IBM Linux Technology Center. He holds the record for the fastest Linux kernel compile and is working to ensure future IBM CPUs are tuned for this crucial benchmark.